Book Provides a Tour of Landmark Gardens

Published 4:00 am, Wednesday, May 26, 1999

Even if you aren't living in a replica of Thomas Jefferson's Monticello, there are plenty of good ideas and inspiring photos in the new book "Great American Gardens."

The book follows a rough historical outline, moving from New England and the old South to the Plains, the Rockies and the Far West -- where, of course, the arid climate in some regions posed puzzling new challenges for the gardener.

We learn that the Puritans had no use for frivolous flowers; they planted lots of herbs, but for medicinal purposes, not for flavoring food or use as cosmetics.

Matters brightened considerably with the arrival of the Dutch, bearing their traditional tulips and other colorful bulbs. Their ideas spread widely throughout the colonies as Americans were able to devote less time to mere survival and more to pleasure.

There are many interesting sidelights. Mount Auburn in Cambridge, Mass., was the first "landscaped public cemetery. Before its establishment, cemeteries were grim places of burial."

The index mentions a Southern "ghost garden." This, it turns out, was an area meant to be enjoyed under a full moon. Its most important elements were white flowers and eerie Spanish moss draping tree limbs.

Those who resolutely avoid local tourist areas, incidentally, may be surprised that the author calls the crooked section of Lombard Street "one of America's great urban garden spots."

Though the illustrations primarily come from parks and public estates such as Delaware's Winterthur, there are smaller-scale gardens as well, such as the plantings in front of an old home in Savannah, Ga.

PICKING YOUR PLANTS

Matching plants to locations is the topic of a garden class in Palo Alto Saturday. The speaker will be Carole Kraft, arborist and landscape contractor.

The workshop, to be followed by garden walking tours, will begin at 10:30 a.m. at the Common Ground gardening store, 2225 El Camino Real (1 1/2 blocks north of California Avenue). The fee is $14, and advance reservations are recommended. Phone (650) 328-6752.

LEARN ABOUT COMPOSTING

Basic and worm composting will be taught at a free class in Sunnyvale Saturday sponsored by the Santa Clara County Integrated Waste Management Program.

The class will be from 10 a.m. to noon at the Community Center, 530 E. Remington Drive (at El Camino Real). Phone (408) 730-7262.